Okay, am I the only one to think that Michelle Obama looked like Big Bird disembarking from that big bird we call Air Force One, after landing in the UK for G-20 Summit? The press was all atwitter at her outfit, adoring her for wearing that Tweety Bird yellow sheath, circa 1960, her well-known wings draped like a blackbird in black.

And what, I ask, is all this attention to Michelle Obama’s clothing as the First Lady accompanies her husband on his first overseas trip as the President of the United States?

I think, folks, we have landed back in the 1950’s when women were still men’s chattel, the helpmates, the keeper of the house, the children’s caretaker, the mommy during the day and the you know what at night as they used to say, well, back in the fifties.

Princeton and Harvard educated, Michelle Obama, got off to a rough start as potential first lady, irritating many with her anger and her frankness.

“Black people will eventually wake up and get it,” she said forcing white America and others to ponder get what. Her big bird mouth got her into a heap of trouble, and her husband, too. His flight of fancy into that big nest located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue took a nosedive. Soon after, David Axelrod, the PR raven-maven took control of Mrs. Obama’s image, and the retooling began.

Bye-bye-black bird tra la la, hello Mother Hen, if Mama were married we’d live in the house just mamma, three ducks, five canaries, a mouse, two monkeys, one father, six turtles, and me, if mamma was married, thank you Gypsy Rose Lee.

And there we have it, tweet tweet, Michelle Obama’s new flight plan. From bright, educated, independent, frank sometimes to a fault contemporary first lady wannabee, to this chirping robin of a first lady; more likely to smile hosting the White House Easter Egg Roll after she personally tends to her Victory garden, than showing the young women of the world that it is not their lot in life to stand two steps behind a man, look up at him adoringly, and the only thing of value that they have to offer as a woman is to prove that they are a good wife and mother who understands fashion.

Really, our new Yellow Bird of a First Lady who has allowed her handlers to do this to her makes me want to upchuck into that bucket, the one she says she is in charge of in her house. Yellow bird la la la la la la la, regurgitate.

Of course, with her approval ratings as high as 76 percent (up 28 percent from last summer), according to a new ABC News poll, our I-wish-she-would-go-back-to-fussing yellow bird of a first lady appears here to stay because these days polls don’t just count, they’re everything in the world of contemporary politics. No one wants to run a-fowl of the polls.

No matter that America’s first lady can fly from world capitol to world capitol and actually make a difference to the lives of women worldwide. Women’s lives even here in America are not equal to those of men. In the United States women earn less than men when they perform the same jobs, less money is spent on studies in diseases common to women. Worldwide, women are still treated as chattel in too many countries; think women are being sold into slavery every day. Envision genital mutilation.

And what do these poll numbers say about American women? How many of them are responsible for our new Mother Hen’s fly me to the moon approval ratings?

Are American women giving up their quest for full equality, happy to remain number two hen to their number one rooster, cock-a-doodle-DON’T, please!

Are Michelle O’s poll numbers reflective of women who are tired of carrying the whole ball – mother, maid, wife, boardroom member, lover, caretaker, you name it – and are looking to return home to the nest to a simpler life when there was a Ford and a GM station wagon in every driveway in America. (OK, today the Ford and station wagon would more likely be a Toyota and Honda.)

You can’t fly home again, my little chickadees.

No, once the worm of equal rights for women was out of the dirt, women's lives were destined to become more complicated. But are you sure you want the alternative?

Women of the Baby Boom generation surely paid a price for their demanding equal rights under the law. In the quest to have it all, too many were left with virtually nothing. Some gave up motherhood, many lost mates in their quest for individual freedom, their children suffered at the hands of an evolving family system.

But many of the daughters of those women who cried freedom and equal rights now appear to be taking for granted the gift their mothers gave them: Choice! They forget that freedom comes at a price.

It is unconscionable, a disgrace to young women worldwide in 2009, to have a first woman of the world relegated to such a diminutive and fatuous role. It is time Michelle Obama put away her kid gloves and started squawking about something real.

Which is not to say she should throw it all out with the bird bath of water; after all, as any wise old owl would say, balance is the key to the best life.

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